The Personalizing Effect of Modern Politics: Phenomenon of Political Will and Dictator's Dilemma

"In the process of personalizing politics, the political weight of a single power-holding subject, positioning in four key sectors - politics, the media, business and civil society – is constantly increasing. Simultaneously the central role of the political group is declining. Today leaders and their personal influence becoming the anchor of political interpretation and political evaluation, and this phenomenon has a multi-valued effect on the course of the political processes: internal and international, as well. Leaders are looking for non-standard solutions of problems and questions. The need for non-standardization is provoked by external (climate of mistrust in world politics, for example) and internal (polarization of social and political forces of society) causes. In this situation, the possession of political will becomes the decisive determinant of the political survival of the leader and the solution by him /her the problems of country ‘s prosperity and tasks of society control. Leader is compelled to learn how to depart from his own moral principles and ideas in the interests of subject matter. Modus operandi of the leader is determined not only by his own mental strategy, but also by a collectively formed image of real and proper ("fair", "right") reality, which, actually, is a reflection of political and social subject’s positions of a particular society. Personalization of the political style in this sense can carry within itself both threats to the society (sense of insecurity) and ensure its security. Exactly at this moment the bifurcation point is formed- the "dictator's dilemma": how to retain the firm supreme power (imperium) and solve the tasks posed: the external war (dictatura rei gerendae), the suppression of insurrection inside the state (dictatura seditionis sedandae), or less scale actions- holding, for example, a referendum. However, the (theoretical) "dictator" never knows for sure who in his entourage is really loyal to him, but who can prepare a "conspiracy". Maneuvering between different strategies of interaction with his /her supporters and other elites and organizations, the leader ("dictator") has to find a way out from a trap of political narcissism, political capsulation, political somnambulism. The empirical material of the research are contemporary leaders of Russia, EU, China. The selection of countries for comparative analyses is based on the methodological principle of the maximum difference of systems."